What is Good Design?

I was going to show a picture of a MacBook Air, but chose the Post-it notes because design is a touchy but important issue; TreeHugger spends so much time looking at design because it is the tool for making our lives more efficient and comfortable, and will play a big role in solving our current problems. Alice Rawsthorne of the International Herald Tribune, one of the best design writers around, tackles the issue, defining it as 1. What it does, 2. How it looks, 3. What's new, 4. How it works, and 5. Guilt.-

"What's the point of designing something gorgeous and useful if it makes us feel guilty, because we know that it's ethically or environmentally irresponsible? Once such concerns were dismissed as the hang-ups of a cranky minority. Not now. Just think of how quickly the plastic bag has become taboo in many countries." ::IHT and ::Core77